Now if you are artistically challenged like I am the idea of drawing anything strikes fear in your heart, don’t fear, this is very easy.

I want you to dream big here, this should be the home office that allows you to be the most productive version of yourself. Put down on paper all the elements you want included in your ideal home office. Don’t limit yourself by money or even by your actual physical space, that will come later. The reason I want you to put down all everything you want now is so that you don’t start editing yourself before you even get started.

For example, if you said I have $100 to spend to get my office organized, how should I spend that money to improve my home office. Now you have a limit to how much you can spend, so your brain is going to think about solutions that are under $100, but if you just let your mind wander without the limits, you will be surprised what you may come up with.

I will be honest, when we moved last year, my new office space was smaller than in our previous home, so I had to make some compromises and have already had a major rearrangement of furniture, but I made the space work for me. But I knew in my heart that I really needed a better space to process the books that I sell on Amazon. Recently, we made some changes in the our home and I now have a space near my office to process my books. The point is that I figured out how to make due with what I had, but I also knew that I wanted something different, and when the opportunity presented itself, I was ready.

Having created that ideal plan on paper will give you the ability to see what you need to take care of right away and what can wait.

So now about that actual diagram. As I mentioned, I’m not an artist. When I have a picture in my head and attempt to translate that to paper, I don’t even recognize what it is supposed to be, so I keep my diagrams very simple. I draw squares and label what the item is supposed to be, and put the square where I want the item. My squares are not even to proper scale, I have some small items that have squares larger than my actual desk square. This is not art class and you aren’t being judged on the artistic merit of your drawing. Another great option here is to use sticky notes. Write everything down on stickies and then you can easily move them around your “room” as you plan out your space.

Okay, so now you have a good exercise for your mind and you don’t have to become an artist to have a productively laid out home office. Share your results and/or struggles in the comments below.